Several transmission protocols, particularly transmission protocols for high data rates, do not have a dedicated clock signal. Thus, when receiving a signal that is based on such a transmission protocol, the duration of individual symbols contained in the signal and, therefore, the symbol rate is also not known. Accordingly, this information needs to be retrieved based on the signal itself.
Known methods for determining the symbol rate usually need an estimated starting value for the symbol rate in order to determine the symbol rate. However, these methods suffer from the problem that the determined symbol rate may be far off from the real value of the symbol rate if the estimate is too far off from the real value of the symbol rate.
Accordingly, there is a need for a symbol rate determination method as well as an measurement instrument that are capable of reliably determining the symbol rate of an input signal.